Each phrase of the Lord\u2019s Prayer is worthy of a book, but the one that catches me, the hardest to live by and accept is \u201cThy will be done.\u201d For me, it only comes after a battle of wills, that point of surrender. You can\u2019t really be helped by anyone unless you acknowledge your need. I can get so defensive when I hear criticism that I\u2019m unable to listen to the good in the critique.<\/p>\n
Same thing happens spiritually. If God knows what I need better than I know myself, why put up so much resistance? The old adage (not to be found anywhere in the Bible) \u201cGod helps those who help themselves\u201d is true…until it\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n
We can sail through a dozen trials until we hit a wall. God\u2019s right there to lend a hand but usually we\u2019re so stubborn\u2014or at least I am\u2014that we\u2019re not willing to reach out and grasp it. We get so used to punching the wall, our hands balled into fists, that we don\u2019t know how to relax and accept the helping hand. Have you ever watched someone parallel park?<\/p>\n
I can look out from my bedroom window down to the street below, a God\u2019s-eye view. I\u2019ll see a car pull out, a car behind waiting to take its place. The driver will check to see if there\u2019s enough room. \u201cYou\u2019ve got at least a foot at either end,\u201d I want to shout. I watch the driver pull forward and back up, turning the steering wheel. Some drivers are great at it. Others are miserable even with plenty of extra space, rolling up over the curb, bumping the car in front. From my exalted position I can see exactly what they need to do. \u201cTurn now!\u201d I\u2019ve been known to say. If they\u2019d only listen. If they\u2019d only hear.<\/p>\n
I suspect I\u2019m often like those hapless drivers. \u201cIt\u2019s good to remember that not even the Master Shepherd can lead if the sheep have not this trust and insist on running ahead of him or taking side paths or just stubbornly refusing to follow him,\u201d wrote Catherine Marshall in her Guideposts story \u201cThe Prayer of Relinquishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
So when do we say \u201cThy will be done?\u201d When to relinquish? Apparently all the time. At least if we follow the guidance of the Lord\u2019s Prayer. It\u2019s there up towards the front of the prayer: \u201cThy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Each phrase of the Lord\u2019s Prayer is worthy of a book, but the one that catches me, the hardest to live by and accept is \u201cThy will be done.\u201d For me, it only comes after a battle of wills, that point of surrender. You can\u2019t really be helped by anyone unless you acknowledge your need. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":30933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[324],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[476],"class_list":["post-24591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspirational-prayers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n